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How Many Cenks at LAX?

Most of the time, my Uber celebrity experience means that I’m the only soon-to-be-famous person in the car.

Not so, late one Friday afternoon.

The name on the ‘ping’ was unusual.

“Couldn’t be,” I muttered. It was awkward. First time picking someone
up at LAX. I’d waited 12 minutes before, got a ride who cancelled [do
NOT cancel when you’re ordering an Uber at LAX. It takes 20 minutes to
get back to the holding pattern!]

So, the second time, I waited 15 minutes.

Pick up at Terminal Three. I called, just to make certain. And to let
him know that my car wasn’t black. It is silver grey. The shot of my
car on Uber isn’t right. Many times, people don’t see me.

Even though I recognized the name, he didn’t sound familiar.

I lurched into World Way then pulled up toe Terminal Three. I went
past him; called again and this patient man sat down in my back seat. I
turned around, just to check if this person were the one I thought it
might be.

It was. The Cenk of The Young Turks!

I think I scared him. “Oh my goodness! It’s YOU!. You’re The Young
Turk of the Turks! I’m on your list. Get twitter feeds all day long from
TYT!”

“So, we’re working for each other, here.” Yes. An Uber driver who
thinks Cenk Turks is something that everyone should listen to. Why?
Because, I was a Young Republican. For many years, standing alone for
capitalism, working hard to get more work, figuring out how to get
myself out of danger, then getting back into it. Not so since GWB took a
huge bonus and destroyed the Middle East . . . but you know all that.

Last year, at Politicon, I’d met Newt Gingrich. Tried to get an
answer as to why he never responded to my letter of resignation to the
Republican Party. If I’d seen the light, where were anyone else with a
brain?

“Where is everyone else?” I would ask myself, after I’d realized that
the [R] didn’t stand for Abe, Ike or anyone with a heart anymore.

Now, in my back seat, was another one. Only famous and noteworthy as a spokesperson.

We talked of current events, most notably the Turkish upheaval into right-wing camps.
And, the one we have here, with the [R] party’s final – they’ve been
working on this since Nixon – take into the realm that begins takes on
20th century fascism.

He also told me about where he asked his wife to marry him. Not far from where I grew up.

At the end, he shot me in my grey car, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
I’d gotten him home, while engaging in a decent conversation.

That’s what Uber-ing is all about. Oh, check Cenk and the rest of what the world needs to hear at The Young Turks!